DISCLAIMER: This is more of a Social Studies piece than my regular Flipped Learning posts, so math & science-y folks need not waste your time here ;)

Do we use enough sociology, economics, political science, and psychology in our classes? Is that the missing link? Even when we call it "social studies", most of us are still heavily focused on history and/or maybe geography.

I've been thinking about devoting much of the first few weeks to defining and understanding some concepts about how the world works. Without knowledge of these, our students cannot clearly grasp many historical and current developments, and I think they will also struggle with empathy and many forms of critical thinking.

Here's an example: What is money? We talk about it all the time (the Great Depression, empires paying off debt, people trading goods, GDP) and take it for granted. But, as I told my students last January in the context of post-Revolutionary War inflation) money is weird. Why is a gold coin worth what it's worth? What makes this $20 bill worth twenty dollars? How come I can't spend euros or pesos in New York City? Students need to know that (at the most basic level) money has a certain value because powerful authorities say so. When that authority loses power, that affects the money's value. Can you get something without money? Sure! Let's talk about personal credit (which was a huge aspect of slaveowning society), and let's discuss the pros and cons of bartering. In some societies like the colonial backcountry, that was a much more realistic economic system which had a social and cultural impact. I think, even though it would probably take at least a couple days of class, that would be a better lesson in September than crammed into the middle of the school year. Maybe this would be a good way to get students talking in the first couple weeks...? Establish good protocols and norms for class discussions? And maybe best of all: create common understandings of a concept that will keep popping up all year long. (We could post working definitions on the classroom wall for future reference!)

I think these other concepts should also be addressed in the 1st month of my class:

government

power (could be contrasted with authority)

rules (Are they the same as laws? Who makes them? What about 'unwritten' rules?)

nation & state (What's the difference? Why do we have both things? For real fun, let's ponder city-states!)

cause (2 disconnected meanings arise in our classes: as a synonym for 'belief', like something worth fighting for; as the counterpart of 'effect', which could lead to distinction of causality and correlation which is a great excuse to show hilarious examples from this website -- example below)​

How about sociological and psychological phenomena? Our adolescent students don't really know how the world works, so they sometimes leap to conclusions that are banal, unrealistic, or just plain impossible.

The Dunning-Kruger effecthelps explain why people sometimes do and believe things even when experts told them otherwise. (This could lead to an interesting and honest discussion of the teacher-student/parent-child relationship. We know better, but kids don't act accordingly!!)

We should probably also discuss confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance, for similar reasons

How about sharing basics of the Milgram experiment with middle schoolers?! Yeah, it's disturbing, but that was the point!

​We could wait until these concepts emerge in the topics we're teaching later in the year, but wouldn't it be more valuable if students noticed the connection later? Instead of us pointing it out and sidetracking ourselves midyear?

Do you have other terms to suggest? Teaching ideas to share? Toss them into the comments below!

One month ago today, I still had a few more days with students. Today is not even the halfway point of my summer vacation yet. I'm actually writing this to remind myself, not so much for you dear reader. I don't yet feel panic, guilt, self-directed frustration, or any of those other familiar midsummer emotions. So that is good. Some years I set clear goals and expectations for my summer vacation -- academically and/or domestically. In 2017 it was fixing the back porch; in 2016 we focused on the kitchen floor, and I re-assessed my grading system. This year we aren't doing much to the house except painting 4 rooms (three down, one to go) and a few other smaller tasks. In terms of school stuff, I mentally divided this summer in two segments:

1st: consider my flipping systems, particularly in response to things I would learn & people I would meet at FlipTech East Coast -- I figured that would be most of July

2nd: some curriculum overhaul in response to the newly-adopted Frameworks, after the statewide 8th-grade civics workshop that I will attend next week -- then I can start mapping out the school year, making some videos / assessments / projects, etc.​

At some point, though, this embarrassment needs some attention.

Welp, summer ain't half-over yet but Segment #1 is coming to a close. What have I learned? What decisions have I made? Honestly, nothing earth-shattering. I didn't leave New Jersey feeling like "OMG I HAVE TO START USING THIS APP" or "TEAR EVERYTHING DOWN, I'M GONNA START TEACHING EVERYTHING LIKE THIS PERSON DOES". But...... it still appears that nobody else flips like I do, and I'm not sure what to think about that. I have never met anybody else who gives formal in-class quizzes about the video lessons, and as far as I know nobody has adopted that system after reading this blog or attending one of my presentations. The more common methods seem to be 1) just presuming that students watched & absorbed the information, 2) online check-ins with GoogleForms or something like EdPuzzle, 3) a more specific WSQ-style procedure of in-class activities, or 4) asynchronous / non-linear structures that give students much more freedom of pace. Am I missing something important? Is this a problem that needs to be solved?

The mastery quizzes are kind of a pain. Whether I score them at home or during class, it's still an extra thing-to-do away from the students. Scheduling and monitoring retakes is another burden, which always has some holes. Due-dates are becoming "uncool" in the edu-verse, and maybe my Need2Know deadlines are problematic. I dabbled with some online assessment last spring, but maybe that only works because I started the year with more formal requirements...? I'm not as confident that students remember the material beyond the moment when they type responses, but I can't accurately compare with the quiz system. When I surveyed students for their opinion at the end of last year, the vote was pretty much split between both formats. And what about the summative unit-level assessments? That higher-order level of understanding beyond knowing the essential facts / concepts / connections? Those full-period typing sessions are just unsustainable, I think. I still prefer that to a take-home essay in terms of accountability, accessibility, honesty, etc. But they seem one-dimensional. I'm not fully satisfied with that element, either. It's not that my systems completely suck. I won't let myself go down that rabbithole of self-doubt. My job approval rating is fairly high, and we've had lots of success. There are some school-based problems that I cannot solve or avoid, and flipping has worked well within these circumstances. OK. Relaxing now. Putting down the dynamite.

The #1 weakness of my class has always been my curriculum. 1750-1865, including a prolonged roadtrip through the contents of the Constitution. That has been an impossible framework. Too much to 'cover'. So many places to get stuck. No clear connections to 7th grade social studies nor toward 9th grade, because I have been "picking up where 5th grade left off" and handing off to 11th grade US History 2. Oh god this seems so whiny. But it's true! At least twice every year I have felt like we're laying the tracks of our curriculum map, which is not a healthy way to work. So I feel really hopeful about gaining a stronger structure by the end of next week, and I will be ever so pissed if those hopes get dashed.

Looping back to "Segment 1":

I will aim to build better in-class activities and structures. Stronger connections between the video lesson (essentials only!) and the next-day role plays, higher-order connections, etc. I marked a few pages in Crystal Kirch's book about simple structures for peer review and discussions.

Another area of focus should be better 'hooks' and opening engagement. That theme appeared in Crystal's book, Matthew Moore's DIBS, Dave Walsh's mind-mapping diagram [see below], and Carolina Buitrago's presentation about Hyperdocs. I have skipped or under-utilized that step, which was a bad idea....

The student panel at FTEC unanimously agreed that perfect video production is not necessary, and actually should be avoided. They remember the teacher's self-corrections, the dog barks, the other little things that make the video feel realistic and human. So maybe I don't need to spend so much time in the basement!

Last summer I made a commitment to avoid making major changes to my flipping systems, and I ended up being pretty successful with that. Before this summer vacation began, I personally pledged to avoid all curriculum planning in July. Without knowing yet what I might gain from attending FTEC18, I decided to give myself these weeks for reconsidering my class routines and even my overall flipping approach. (Later this month, I will attend a statewide workshop about the new Mass. standards for 8th grade, and that should give me some curriculumguidance for units, lessons, videos for September and beyond. Why make plans now that could get replaced or outmoded very soon? In August, it's game on!)

This week I've had a feeling that makes me empathize with teachers who resist or avoid the flipped-classroom pedagogy. Shields up! I feel myself circling the wagons and pulling into my shell. It seems almost instinctual ... which is weird because I'm not usually like this. What is going on inside my brain?! I dunno, so let's blog about it and see where this goes.

I respect the hell out of Dave Walsh, Matt Moore, Kevin Hogendorp, and all the other folks who entered this story last night during an ad hoc moderator-free #flipclasschat. The main topic was nonlinear / asynchronous teaching:

Matthew Moore offered applicable advice for history teaching: "I call attention to examining multiple perspectives of the same hist event. time is linear but the interchange of ideas & perspectives of that linear event are more intertwined & create a knot of existence that may not have definite beginning and end. " Kevin also chimed in with a few nuggets, including: "Teaching thematically allows for this. It also can expose Ss to many events in same time period in different areas."

My brain swiftly jumps to excuses/reasons/obstacles:

It seems complicated to set this up!

What are the students doing during class, if many of them are working at different paces on different topics?

How would this work for my students with special needs?

I don't see how this fits for history, because students need to know some things in a chronological sequence.

Maybe it's good for high-school kids, but my 8th-graders would probably struggle.

Pretty quickly, I acknowledged the irony. These are also 5 common complaints/concerns against flipping! The time to create videos, the mystery of class time, the diversity of students, the subject-specific issues, the kids' maturity level. Even though I think flipping is great, some audiences only consider the challenges to their status quo. "Maybe that's good for you, but I'm just gonna keep doing my own thing." To some degree this response is healthy, right? Right?!? I mean, if we all just latch onto every new teaching idea that we hear, then we would be constantly revising and replacing our systems. We would never get really good at anything. We would never make it our own. We might exhaust ourselves (and our students, and maybe our families!) with neverending changes. I like a lot of what I already do. I have ample student-survey data to support those systems, and over the years I have refined and tweaked them for improvement. It's not like I never make changes (even last year when I promised myself to hold the line!). From the very beginning, I have adopted this method because flipping solves & prevents problems which my students and I suffered in the traditional homework/classwork structure. So even though I could make some significant systemic changes to satisfy my curiosity, I'm not at all yet convinced that I should. The wise words of Ian Malcolm have been popping into my head lately (paraphrased below).

So now we come to the big question: Do I have problems that nonlinear / asynchronous teaching could fix? At this moment I still don't think so.... but my mind reminds open. Perhaps my upcoming curriculum shift (more civics, less history) will cause problems that this approach could resolve. Maybe I will get a brainstorm that makes everything click into place. Certainly I will continue this conversation with Dave, Matt, Kevin, Kate, Joy, Carolina, and all the other curious & supportive #flipclass folks.

One of the flipping OGs graced us with his presence for nearly the entire FTEC18 conference, including a center-stage role on Friday morning. He was fun, funny, and engaged with "the commoners" at all parts of the weekend, from the breakout sessions to the student panel to the documentary screening and much more.

everybody's favorite slide from the keynote address

Aaron Sams organized the speech into four segments, the longest and first of which was a personal review of his 10 years in “the business” as classroom teacher and beyond. His presentation answered a persistent question that has rattled around the back of my head for a few years: How can Bergmann & Sams still be relevant and helpful to me, if they haven’t been in the classroom recently? It is a paradox for “gurus” and pedagogy experts of all types -- that role seems mutually exclusive with the role of Typical Teacher. Aaron confessed to us all (perhaps for the first time publicly?) that he came to hate the traveling life, despite how flattering it once was to get plucked from virtual obscurity in Colorado for all-expenses-paid trips around the globe. He candidly described the emotional toll of being a so-called guru -- on himself and his family -- and explained how and why he has found contentment in Pittsburgh.

Perhaps most significant to the flipped-learning community, Aaron Sams shared his preferred definition of the practice (image above). Furthermore, he revised the mantra of flipping is not about the videos to flipping is MOSTLY about the videos.* That is to say, what makes flipped-teaching unique from other approaches like PBL, UDL, mastery, etc. is the usage of videos for direct instruction of skills and concepts (not just as enrichment). You can do those other things without videos, but if so then it's not flipping.I love this!! I am not sure how this statement is going to be applied (Will the Flipped Learning Network’s definition incorporate this officially somehow?), but it nicely fits my personal journey in flipping, even though that has been half as long as Aaron’s. Instead of twisting the definition of flipping into pretzel knots, and acting almost apologetically about the notion that online videos should be necessary, I believe the flipped community should focus its energy and attention more narrowly on questions like these:

What constitutes an effective video lesson?

​What kind of comprehension assessments and follow-up activities tend to work best after viewing?

How much do interactive tools like EdPuzzle improve students’ understanding?

How can we all work to resolve problems of tech access inequity?

To me, focusing the community in that direction seems much better than trying to pretend that non-video-based instruction can still fit under the tent of Flipped Learning.

These words were everywhere at FlipTech EastCoast. We heard them spoken aloud in keynotes and presentations; we saw numerous examples on signs and photographs; we experienced them in groups of all sizes: classroom sessions with 5 or 25 people, a pair of teachers eating or drinking at a table, or a large auditorium audience. The frequency and ubiquity does not make these notions less important, less true, or more cliche. The fact we need reminders, opportunities, and encouragement shows to me the vital importance of these interpersonal qualities, whether we are flippers or not.

A FEW ILLUSTRATIVE PHOTOS STOLEN/BORROWED FROM THE #FTEC18 HASHTAG:

​ Many FTEC18 attendees lack these familiar flipping connections in our "regular lives". My informal polling indicates that at least 75% of us are the Only Flipper in our school or district. Matthew Moore (@matthew_t_moore) paraphrased a passage from Luke 4:24, that you cannot be a prophet in your own town. The flipped classroom is "Andrew's thing" or "Matthew's thing" and that's one reason* why our school building colleagues do not quickly latch on to the practice. * but, as I will blog soon, it's not at all the only reason

I hastily scrawled some notes yesterday, during an early dinner in a NJ Turnpike rest area, which will fuel future blog posts about some themes I noticed at this weekend's conference. So I guess you have that to look forward to....

This was a silly post-conference tweet, but it's true: I really did need to wash some clothes!

I also really need to follow my own advice and...

signup to explore Edmodo (because: Kate Baker)

check out Kaizena and Comment Bubble and The Feedback Fix (thanks, Lindsay!)

Who is this flipping guy?!

Andrew Swan just finished year 18 of teaching middle school (currently 8th-grade US History/Govt in a Boston suburb). Previously he has taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade English, ancient history, & geography in Maine and in Massachusetts. This was Andrew's 5th year of flipping all direct instruction, so we have more class time for simulations, deep discussions, analyzing primary sources ... and also to promote mastery for students at all levels. His 8th-grade daughter, 10th-grade son, and wonderful wife all indulge Andrew's blogging, tweeting, & other behaviors. These include co-moderating the #sschat Twitter sessions and Facebook page. ​Andrew does not always refer to himself in the third-person. Twitter: @flipping_A_tchrInstagram: aswan802